Billie Burke as
Glinda the Good Witch
This image "reprinted by permission, The Official 50th Anniversary
Pictorial
History, The Wizard of Oz Warner Books NY,NY © 1989, all rights reserved."
The name Billie Burke always seemed like a simple name and should have been for a simple plain person---but did you know that she was christened in Westminster Abbey in England as Mary William Ethelbert Appleton Burke. Billie Burke was anything but a simple plain person. She was considered by Florence Ziegfeld as one of the 10 most beautiful women of all time.
Miss Burke met the legendary Flo Ziegfeld when W. Somerset Maugham escorted her to a dance. Three months later they were married. A daughter Patricia was born in 1916. Billie Burke continued to work during this period of time until the marriage ended in Flo Ziegfeld's death in 1932. This also saw the end of Ms. Burke's career on the stage.
Billie Burke had been born in Washington DC in 1886. Her father, an Englishman, named Billy Burke, was a clown with the Barnum and Bailey's Circus. It was her father that she took her stage name from feminizing the first name to Billie. Her parents moved to England for her father to start a troupe of clowns on his own. Billie Burke was schooled in both England and France. Her voice forever after took on a mixture of English and Yankee idiom. She was schooled in theatrics by her father and at age 14 appeared in her first professional stage play.
After her father's death she came with her American Mother back to the United States and was working professionally on Broadway within the year. It was after Flo Ziegfeld's death that her career took a sharp turn from Broadway to Hollywood. Ms. Burke was already an established comedienne. She then took on the role of the sophisticated matron and that of a dither. She had a way of always looking surprised when people did not seem to understand what she considered a simple truth. The telling about the ruby slippers to Dorothy and clicking the heels three times to go home was a perfect example of this concept.
Billie Burke was 53 years old when she made the Wizard of Oz as the delightful "good" witch named Glinda. Though one might say she was a bit long in the tooth for this part, no one could have played it with more charm and with that brand of warm humor Billie Burke did so well. Besides, 53 is young in witch years.
Billie Burke died on May 14, 1970 at the age of 84. Her daughter, Patricia, 4 grandchildren and 9 great grandchildren survived her.
The following information was provided by Daniel Stephenson, Great-Grandson, on February 15th, 2004.
Patricia married William Robert Stephenson they had four children.
They are Florenz, Celie, Robert and Susie.
Florenz Crossley and her late husband David have 2 children Dale and Stephen.
Celie Duncan is married to Don has 2 children from her first marriage, Billie Jean and Rob Adkisson.
Robert Stephenson and his wife Violette have the 3 of us Nicole, Daniel and Kathryn.
Susie Plemons has 2 children with her husband Mickey, Christopher and Betsy.
Patricia and Bill are still alive, she is 87 and he is 91, and they live next door to the house that Billie and Patricia lived in when Billie moved to Los Angeles.
Thank you for the interest in the story.
-Daniel Stephenson